Well, after months of planning and anticipation, the 16th annual Four Corners Folk Festival is here!

This weekend, Sept. 2-4, Pagosa Springs will host thousands of music lovers from around the country who will come to enjoy the fabulous musicians who will be playing this year’s festival: Keb’ Mo’, Los Lobos, Natalie McMaster, Jackie Greene, The Infamous Stringdusters, Punch Brothers, Jimmy LaFave, Cousin Harley, Caravan of Thieves, Chatham County Line, Joy Kills Sorrow, The Black Lillies, Anne AND Pete Sibley, MilkDrive and SHEL.

The Reservoir Hill campgrounds open on Sept. 1, and the music gets underway at 2 P.M. on Friday, Sept. 2, on the main stage on Reservoir Hill.

Friday’s main stage bands are MilkDrive, Joy Kills Sorrow, the Infamous Stringdusters and Natalie McMaster. At 9 p.m. the show moves down to the Ross Aragon Community Center with a set by The Black Lillies followed by a rollicking rockabilly set from Vancouver’s Cousin Harley at 10 p.m.

On Saturday morning, SHEL will kick things off at 11 a.m., followed by The Black Lillies, Cousin Harley, Chatham County Line, Punch Brothers and wrapping up with Los Lobos at 7 p.m.

Saturday late night again takes the music down to the community center, this time with three festival artists keeping the music going. Joy Kills Sorrow plays at 9 p.m., then Chatham County Line will take the stage at 10 and, finally, festival favorites The Infamous Stringdusters will close down the night at 11 with a super jam guaranteed to go on past midnight.

Because of the popularity of last year’s Saturday late show (we had to turn away over 100 people), the Saturday late show is a $5 add-on ticket to any valid Saturday festival ticket. There will be less than 200 of these tickets available by the time the festival starts.

The final day of this year’s festival is Sunday, Sept. 4. It is going to be epic.

Anne and Pete Sibley will open Sunday at 11 a.m. for the seventh straight year, warming up the enthusiastic audience for that day’s bands: Joy Kills Sorrow, Caravan of Thieves, Jimmy LaFave, Jackie Greene and finally, a closing set from legendary bluesman Keb’ Mo’.

In addition to the incredible music on the stage, the Four Corners Folk Festival hosts free programming for children — arts and crafts, magic shows, juggling and special musical performances — all weekend in the kids tent, and children 12 and under get free festival admission when accompanied by an adult.

Advanced festival tickets are available by phone and online up until the day before the performance.

There will also be festival tickets available at the gate on the day of the festival. For complete schedule and ticket information, visit www.folkwest.com.

Tickets can also be purchased by calling the ticket hotline at 731-5582, although due to the high volume of calls in the days of the festival, you will have better luck on the Internet.